Reckonary / Everyday / Discount calculator
Sale price
A discount is just a slice taken off the list price. Enter the original price and the percent off, and this calculator shows the sale price and the dollars you keep in your pocket. Drag the slider to compare a 20%-off tag against a 50%-off one in an instant.
To find the saving, multiply the price by the discount and divide by one hundred. A 25% discount on an $80 item saves $20, so the sale price is $60. The bigger the percent, the more comes off — but the saving is always measured against the original price, not the sale price.
One shortcut makes mental math easy: a percent off is the same number of cents off each dollar. At 25% off you keep 75 cents of every dollar, so a $90 jacket at 35% off keeps 65 cents per dollar and lands at $58.50 — a $31.50 saving. If you can split the price into tens and take the percent of each, you can sanity-check almost any sale tag in your head before you reach the register.
Sometimes the tag only shows the discounted figure and you want to know what it started at. You cannot simply add the percent back, because the discount was taken off the larger original number. The fix is to divide by what is left after the cut: a $60 shirt marked 25% off was sold at 75% of its original price, so the original was $60 ÷ 0.75 = $80. For a 40%-off item, divide by 0.60; for 30% off, divide by 0.70. This is the same math the calculator runs in reverse.
Two coupons rarely add up the way they look. A 30%-off deal followed by a 20%-off code is not 50% off — the second cut applies to the already-reduced price. Thirty percent off $100 leaves $70, then 20% off that leaves $56, so the real saving is 44%, not 50%. The order does not change the result, but the totals never sum the way the signs suggest.
The same trap hides in "take an extra 15% off sale items." On a $120 coat already marked 40% off, the shelf price is $72; the extra 15% takes it to $61.20. That is a 49% total saving, not 55%. Whenever a second discount is layered on, run the first one, then apply the second to the new price — exactly the step-by-step the dedicated stacked-discount tool automates. The stacked discounts guide goes deeper on why the gap gets worse the bigger the discounts are.
The sale price shown here is before tax. In almost every U.S. store the discount comes off the shelf price first, then sales tax is added to that lower amount, so the percent off never touches the tax line. That order works in your favor: a 25%-off item is taxed on the reduced price, not the original. Use this tool to know the shelf price, then add your local tax rate for the amount you actually hand over at the till.
How do I find the original price from a sale price?
Divide the sale price by one minus the discount as a decimal. A $60 item at 25% off came from $60 / 0.75, which is $80.
What percent off is a buy-one-get-one-free deal?
Across the two items it works out to 25% off, not 50%. You pay full price for one and nothing for the other, so the pair costs three quarters of two full prices.
Is a 50% off coupon the same as half price?
Yes. Fifty percent off removes half the listed price, so a $40 jacket becomes $20. Any percent off is simply that fraction of the price taken away.
Does the discount apply before or after tax?
Almost always before. Stores discount the shelf price first, then add sales tax to the lower amount, so the percent off never touches the tax line.
Last reviewed June 2026. Quick checks for everyday shopping.